Washington,
DC (LifeNews.com) -- Leading pro-abortion organizations are coming
out in opposition to the new abortion funding "compromise"
worked out by Senators Harry Reid and Ben Nelson. Although pro-life
advocates oppose the compromise because it still allows abortion funding,
they are upset that states can cut off some funding.

The
so-called compromise
essentially allows states to determine if they want to opt out of
the massive government funding of abortion under the government-run
health care bill.

Citizens
of states that do not opt out will still be forced to pay for abortions.

Cecile
Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, put out a statement opposing
the deal.

"Planned
Parenthood strongly opposes the new abortion language offered by Senator
Ben Nelson in the manager's amendment," she said. "Last
week, the Senate rejected harsh restrictions on abortion coverage,
and it is a sad day when womens health is traded away for one
vote."

The
Nelson language is essentially an abortion rider. It creates an unworkable
system whereby individuals are required to write two separate checks
each month, one for abortion care and one for everything else,"
she said.

"There
is no sound policy reason to require women to pay separately for their
abortion coverage other than to try to shame them and draw attention
to the abortion coverage. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that insurance
companies will be willing to follow such an administratively cumbersome
system, leaving tens of millions of women without abortion coverage,"
she claimed.

Richards
said the Nelson-Reid abortion funding compromise would create outrage
among pro-abortion activists.

There
is no policy reason for this action, it is simply a political maneuver.
We understand that leaders in the Senate and the White House want
to move the process forward, but given this provision, we have no
choice but to oppose the Senate bill," Richards said.

"Planned
Parenthood will now work with leaders to fix the abortion coverage
language in conference," she promised.

Terri
O'Neil, the president of the pro-abortion women's group NOW, says
the Reid-Nelson-based manager's amendment "amounts to a health
insurance bill for half the population and a sweeping anti-abortion
law for the rest of us."

"And
by the way, it's the rest of us who voted the current leadership into
both houses of Congress," she grumbled in an email LifeNews.com
received.

"The
National Organization for Women is outraged that Senate leadership
would cave in to Sen. Ben Nelson, offering a compromise that amounts
to a Stupak-like ban on insurance coverage for abortion care,"
O'Neil added, even though pro-life groups say it is nothing like the
Stupak amendment.

"Right-wing
ideologues like Nelson and the Catholic Bishops may not understand
this, but abortion is health care. And health care reform is not true
reform if it denies women coverage for the full range of reproductive
health services," she added. "We call on all senators who
consider themselves friends of women's rights to reject the Manager's
Amendment, and if it remains, to defeat this cruelly over-compromised
legislation."

NARAL
president Nancy Keenan also weighed in with her opposition.

"It is outrageous that ... the Senate has succumbed to including
further anti-choice language in its bill," she said. "While
the Senate bill does not include the Stupak-Pitts provision, this
new language is unacceptable."

"It is inexplicable that a bill seeking to expand health coverage
for Americans would impose such great administrative burdens on women
who purchase abortion coverage and plans that offer it," Keenan
grumbled. "The language regarding abortion coverage comes at
too high a price for reproductive health. Thus, we must oppose this
new Nelson language."

She said NARAL "withholds support from the overall health-reform
legislation until we assess the totality of provisions in the final
bill that comes out of a conference committee between the House and
Senate."

The
statements from the pro-abortion gorups put them at odds with pro-abortion
lawmakers who said
they support the compromise.